Brian Stafford (businessman)


Brian Stafford is an American businessman and the CEO of Diligent Corporation, a software-as-a-service company for enterprise governance.

Education

Stafford graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and subsequently obtained a master's degree in computer science from the University of Chicago.

Career

Stafford founded and led CarOrder, an automotive company and division of Trilogy Software based in Austin, Texas, and served as the company's president and CEO.
He subsequently became a partner at McKinsey & Company, where he founded and led the company's Growth Stage Tech Practice. At McKinsey, he focused on developing SaaS companies.
Stafford is also co-founder of Blue Seed Capital, a venture capital firm based in New York.

Diligent

Since March 2015, Stafford has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Diligent Corporation, a company specializing in enterprise governance management software and one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies.
He was appointed to the board of directors, effective on March 31, 2015, and has since served as President and Chief Executive Officer.
Under Stafford's leadership, Diligent's annual revenues grew from $80 million in 2015 to $200 million in 2018, thus making it one of today's most successful SaaS companies. During his tenure, Diligent also launched Governance Cloud, an integrated and secure enterprise governance management solution.

Additional affiliations and memberships

Stafford is a member of the board of trustees of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Awards and recognitions

In August 2018, Stafford was honored as one of the 100 most influential leaders in corporate governance by The National Association of Corporate Directors.

Personal life

Stafford is married to Céliné Dufétel, current CFO and treasurer at T. Rowe Price Group.

Publications